You must have a defined territory. You must have a permanent population. You must have a government. Your government must be capable of interacting with other states. This one is somewhat controversial. It was included as a qualification in the Montevideo Convention , which established the United States good neighbor policy of nonintervention in Latin America, but is generally not recognized as international law.
Congratulations on joining the ranks of Transnistria, Somaliland, and a host of other countries that wont be marching at the Olympics anytime soon. Just because youve met the qualifications and declared yourself independent doesnt mean that youre going to be taken seriously. Even the Principality of Sealand located on a 10,square-foot platform in the North Seahas tried with mixed success to claim sovereignty under these qualifications.
However, now that your state is established, there are certain benefits you can expect, even if youre not recognized by anyone. Once an entity has established itself as a de facto state, it will benefit from territorial integrity and certain guarantees of sovereignty, says Stefan Talmon, professor of public international law at Oxford University and author of Recognition in International Law. For instance, now that Kosovo is established as a state, Serbia can no longer freely attack it to bring it back into Serbia.
It benefits from the prohibition of the use of force under the U. These rules were established during the Cold War to protect new states that were not yet recognized by one bloc or another. Theres not much point in having your own country unless other countries acknowledge your existence. International recognition is what gives a country legitimacy in the international community and what ultimately distinguishes the New Zealands of the world from the Nagorno-Karabakhs.
Naturally, though, the established countries are going to take some convincing. Recognition is quite complicated because it combines international law and international politics, Talmon says. Some people say that recognition is a purely political act. It is at the discretion of existing states whether they recognize, so there is no right to recognition. Even today, a number of entities are recognized as states by some countries, but not by others.
Palestine, Taiwan, and Northern Cyprus fall into this category. The United States has no official policy on what is required for recognition, according to its State Department. Instead, the decision to recognize a state is made by the president. Then the president decides whether to establish diplomatic relations with the state based on U.
Theres no cookie-cutter approach, so when you ask for recognition, be sure to explain how your independence will be good for America.
In the old days, proving your anti-communist cred was usually good enough. Today, U. There's an incredible amount of economic development that's taking place. It's pretty much everything that you would expect to see in a state," Dr Richards adds. But Somaliland is not recognised by anybody, making life hard.
Access to international markets is difficult without legal protections. As Somaliland's currency is not recognised outside its boundaries, it has no international value. The concept which underlies the idea of a nation state is "self-determination".
The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: "The action of a people in deciding its own form of government; free determination of statehood, postulated as a right.
This right was enshrined in the UN Charter in June Self-determination was initially seen as a way for peoples living under colonial regimes to gain independence, or choose some form of association with the former colonial power or another state. If the people of a colonised territory wanted their own country, the principle of self-determination suggested they should have it.
About a third of the planet's population saw its political status changed. From just 51 countries in , the United Nations today has members. Many jurists of international law maintained that after a colony gained independence, further separations, or consideration of changes in borders, were out.
But this runs up against the idea of self-determination. The solution was to say that, for people living inside the borders of the country from which they want independence, self-determination gives a right to autonomy, but stops short of being allowed their own country. When Yugoslavia broke up, it was replaced by six republics, one of which was Serbia. Kosovo was a province within Serbia's borders, but with a different ethnic population which had enjoyed a large degree of autonomy.
Kosovo becoming independent would have changed the borders of Serbia and violated the principle of territorial integrity. A conflict with the Serbian authorities followed, which only ended with Nato military intervention in Then in , Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.
Serbia said this was invalid and took the issue to the court of the United Nations that settles international legal disputes - the International Court of Justice. But the crux of the matter was less a question of law and more whether Kosovan statehood was likely to be recognised.
So what does it take to get the great powers to back you? For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:. For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.
A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
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